Glamour Uses Google+ to Offer Integrated Ad Buys, Custom Content

Month long social campaign could reach 1.5 million.

It’s a cross between social advertising, content marketing and a traditional ad-buy: Glamour magazine is launching a new month-long series of custom Google+ Hangouts, giving its advertisers unique access, and exposure, to the title’s more than 1.5 million Google+ followers.

Between April 10 and May 8 the magazine will roll out nine hangouts that will include a total of nine advertising partners. The online campaign is a direct extension of Glamour’s May beauty issue—the publication invited select print and digital advertisers to receive a custom Google+ Hangout that the magazine would produce on their behalf.

“A lot of our advertisers were asking for custom content—things they could use across their websites and socially,” says Jenny Bowman, executive creative services director for the brand. “This is part of their commitment for running in the May issue. We produce the Hangouts, bring in talent and film it—it’s something that we’re doing as added value.”

The Hangout series includes content that ranges from beauty how-tos and shopping inspiration to live music and insider tips. The Hangouts will be uploaded to Glamour’s YouTube channel, as well as the advertisers’ websites and social media outlets. Some of the Hangouts are live, enabling readers to log on and participate using the hashtag #GLAMOURHangouts, while others will be pre-recorded, allowing readers to watch and comment via Google+.

The magazine began working directly with Google in January to develop this first Hangout series. Sponsors are casually folded in—SlimFast will present a comedic improv session featuring members of the comedy troupe the Upright Citizens Brigade and 30 Rock actress Sue Galloway, for example.

“We’ll be promoting the hang outs across other social networks to get as much momentum as possible,” says Bowman. “We’re always trying to come up with ideas based on what our advertisers are looking for, and custom content is hugely important.”